The Guide PDF Book by R. K. Narayan
Click here to Download The Guide PDF Book by R K Narayan having PDF Size 1 MB and No of Pages 194.
My troubles would not have started (Raju said in the course of narrating his life-story to this man who was called Velan at a later stage) but for Rosie. Why did she call herself Rosie? She did not come from a foreign land. She was just an Indian, who should have done well with Devi, Meena, Lalitha, or any one of the thousand names we have in our country.
The Guide PDF Book by R. K. Narayan
| Name of Book | The Guide |
| Author | R. K. Narayan |
| PDF Size | 1 MB |
| No of Pages | 194 |
| Language | English |
About Book – The Guide PDF Book Download by R. K. Narayan
She chose to call herself Rosie. Don’t imagine on hearing her name that she wore a short skirt or cropped her hair. She looked just the orthodox dancer that she was. She wore saris of bright hues and gold lace, had curly hair which she braided and beflowered, wore diamond earrings and a heavy gold necklace.
I told her at the first opportunity what a great dancer she was, and how she fostered our cultural traditions, and it pleased her. Thousands of persons must have said the same thing to her since, but I happened to be the first in the line. Anyone likes to hear flattering sentiments, and more than others, I suppose, dancers.
They like to be told every hour of the day how well they keep their steps. I praised her art whenever I could snatch a moment alone with her and whisper in her ear, out of range of that husband of hers. The Guide PDF Book Download Oh, what a man! I have not met a more grotesque creature in my life. Instead of calling herself Rosie, she could more logically have called him Marco Polo.
He dressed like a man about to undertake an expedition—with his thick colored glasses, thick jacket, and a thick helmet over which was perpetually stretched a green, shiny waterproof cover, giving him the appearance of a space traveler. I have, of course, no idea of the original Marco Polo’s appearance, but I wanted to call this man Marco at first sight, and I have not bothered to associate him with any other name since.
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The moment I set eyes on him, on that memorable day at our railway station, I knew that here was a lifelong customer for me. A man who preferred to dress like a permanent tourist was just what a guide passionately looked for all his life. The Guide PDF Book Download You may want to ask why I became a guide or when.
I was a guide for the same reason as someone else is a signaler, porter, or guard. It is fated thus. My mother invariably answered, “I know, I know. She is getting wrong headed, that is all. I know what she will respond to,” she said in a mysterious, sinister manner, receiving the pail and carrying it into the kitchen.
She came out in a moment with a tumblerful of hot milk for me. The sugar was kept in an old tin can, which looked rusty but contained excellent sugar. RK Narayan Novels It was kept on a wooden ledge on the smoke-stained wall of the kitchen, out of my reach. I fear that its position was shifted up and up as I grew older, because I remember that I could never get at that rusty can at any time except with the cooperation of my elders.
My father ignored food and sleep when he had company. My mother sent me out several times to see if he could be made to turn in. He was a man of uncertain temper and one could not really guess how he would react to interruptions, and so my mother coached me to go up, watch his mood, and gently remind him of food and home.
I stood under the shop awning, coughing and clearing my throat, hoping to catch his eye. But the talk was all-absorbing and he would not glance in my direction, and I got absorbed in their talk, although I did not understand a word of it. RK Narayan Novels Work was going on briskly. I lost to some extent my freedom under the tamarind tree, because trucks were parked there.
I climbed into them and played. No one minded me. All day I was climbing in and out of the trucks, and my clothes became red with mud. Most of the trucks brought red earth, which was banked up on the field. In a short while a small mountain was raised in front of our house. It was enchanting.
When I stood on the top of this mound I could see far-off places, the hazy outlines of Mempi Hills. I became as busy as the men. I spent all my time in the company of those working on the track, listening to their talk and sharing their jokes. The Guide PDF Book More trucks came, bringing timber and iron. A variety of goods was piling up on every side.
Presently I began to collect sawn-off metal bits, nuts, and bolts, and I treasured them in my mother’s big trunk, where a space was allotted to me amidst her ancient silk saris, which she never wore. A tremendous fuss was made before I started for my school each day. My mother fed me early and filled up a little aluminum vessel with refreshment for the afternoon.
She carefully put my books and slate into a bag and slung it across my shoulder. The Guide PDF Book I was dressed in clean shorts and shirt; my hair was combed back from the forehead, with all the curls falling on my nape. For the first few days I enjoyed all this attention, but soon developed a normal aversion; I preferred to be neglected and stay at home to being fussed over and sent to a school.
But my father was a stern disciplinarian; perhaps he was a snob who wanted to brag before others that his son was going to a school. He kept an eye on my movements till I was safely on the road each morning. He sat in his shop and kept calling every few minutes, “Boy, have you left?” I walked endlessly to reach my school. No other boy went in my direction.
I talked to myself on the way, paused to observe the passers-by or a country cart lumbering along, or a grasshopper going under a culvert. The Guide PDF My progress was so halting and slow that when I turned into the Market Street I could hear my class-mates shouting their lessons in unison, for the old man, our master, who taught us, believed in getting the maximum noise out of his pupils.
In spite of all the apparent violence and purposelessness, I suppose we did make good under our master, for within a year I proved good enough for the first standard in Board High School; I could read heavier books, and do multiplication up to twenty in my head. The old master himself escorted me to the Board School, which had just established itself, and admitted me there; he saw me off in my new class, seated me and two others, and blessed us before taking leave of us.
It was a pleasant surprise for us that he could be so kind. The Guide PDF All this prudence did not save him. Velan’s affairs were satisfactorily ended. One day he came to invite Raju to his sister’s marriage, and Raju had to plead long and hard before he could make him leave him alone. However, Velan brought him fruit on huge trays covered with silk cloth, the sort of offering which Raju would conjure up for the edification of his tourists when he took them through an ancient palace or hall.
He accepted the gift gracefully. Next morning he rose early and went through his ablutions, washed his clothes in the river, lit the stove, made himself coffee, and felt completely at ease with the world. He had to decide on his future today. He should either go back to the town of his birth, bear the giggles and stares for a few days, or go somewhere else.
Where could he go? He had not trained himself to make a living out of hard work. RK Narayan Book Food was coming to him unasked now. If he went away somewhere else certainly nobody was going to take the trouble to bring him food in return for just waiting for it. The only other place where it could happen was the prison. Where could he go now? Nowhere. Cows grazing on the slopes far off gave the place an air of sublime stillness. He realized that he had no alternative: he must play the role that Velan had given him.
One fine day, beyond the tamarind tree the station building was ready. The steel tracks gleamed in the sun; the signal posts stood with their red and green stripes and their colorful lamps; and our world was neatly divided into this side of the railway line and that side. Everything was ready.
All our spare hours were spent in walking along the railway track up to the culvert half a mile away. We paced up and down our platform, a gold mohur sapling was planted in the railway yard. RK Narayan Book We passed through the corridor, peeping into the room meant for the stationmaster. Very soon, unobtrusively, my father was back in his seat at the hut shop, leaving me to handle the business in the new shop.
As soon as a certain bridge off Malgudi was ready, regular service began on our rails; it was thrilling to watch the activities of the stationmaster and the blue-shirted porter as they “received” and “line-cleared” two whole trains each day, the noon train from Madras and the evening one from Trichy. I became very active indeed in the shop. As you might have guessed, all this business expansion in our family helped me achieve a very desirable end—the dropping off of my school unobtrusively.
